Project Director, Sara Miller tells all about her team of heroes who fed our families

09/04/2020

At 5am, just before a warm Guatemalan dawn 30 School of Hope staff and scholarship students gathered sleepy-eyed to face a day of incredibly tough but rewarding work.

It has been a wild few days here for us in Jocotenango. Increasingly stricter restrictions, food staple shortages, and constant concern about the ability of our suppliers to deliver. We started at Plan A and I guess we were up to Plan X by the time we’d overcome all of the twists and turns of the logistical challenge.

Along the way, we had to shift from our original plan of food vouchers to food hampers which meant bagging 6.10 tonnes of food in 6 hrs. And with our strict social distancing and hygiene regime in place, we disinfected each and every product in every bag.

Huge thanks goes to La Bodegona Supermercado who turned around our food orders with short notice, in the middle of a crisis, with reduced staff and work hours. Their fair pricing and assistance helped to see that none of our families will go hungry.

The hampers contents were restricted, as in all countries right now, to what was available. But, with a lot of negotiation, charm and persistence we gathered a good variety of filling foods, both nutritious and liked by our families:

By 2pm, we’d distributed 315 hampers. We applied strict social distancing two meters apart lines for collection and families were instructed to only send one adult and to wear a mask. The team work, passion, sense of camaraderie, and commitment to work hard until it was done was amazing. In everyone’s minds were the faces of our students, and knowing they will not go hungry in the next month kept us all going.

Currently travel between departments is prohibited and as we have 15 or so families that live in a different department to The School of Hope we have an additional challenge to reach them. We may be able to get through as we will be transporting aid, but if we get turned around then we will have to wait on those families until restrictions are lifted. Rest-assured when we can, we will reach them.

This food rescue programme is to feed not just our students, but the families they live with. We will continue to keep sending food hampers all the way through this crisis. If you or someone you know can spare £20 to cover one of the family food hampers please get in touch. You can either donate directly via our donate page or get in touch with us at sponsor@eftc.org.uk or call: